Characteristics of an authentically empowered person?

Humble.

An authentically empowered person is humble. This does not mean the false humility of one who stoops to be with those who are below him or her. It is the inclusiveness of one who responds to the beauty of every soul. It is the harmlessness of one who treasures and honors and reveres life in all its forms. A humble spirit walks a familiar world. People are not strangers to it; they are its companions upon the earth. Humble spirits are free to love and to be who they are.

Harmless.

What does it mean to be harmless? It means being so strong that you need not harm any creature. That is what it means: you are so able and empowered that the idea of showing power through harm is not even a part of your consciousness. Without genuine humility, you cannot have this kind of power because you lose power when you do not give each situation that you are in, and the people you are with, respect and appreciation.

Noncompetitive.

An authentically empowered person does not compete for external power. They have no artificial standards to live up to. They are not drawn to the symbols of external power.

If the something that you aim for is prestige or notice or a gold medal, it is your personality that is motivating the competition. You are striving to empower yourself at the expense of others, to assert your superiority over another. You are striving for external power. By striving for this external reward, you ask the world to assess and acknowledge your value before you can value yourself. You place your sense of self worth in the hands of others. You have no power even if you win every gold medal that the world can produce.

Forgiving.

Forgiveness is not a moral issue. It is an energy dynamic. When most people forgive, they do not want those they forgive to forget it. This kind of forgiveness manipulates the person who is forgiven. It is not real forgiveness. Real forgiveness means that you do not carry the baggage of an experience.

When you choose not to really forgive, the experience sticks with you. It is like agreeing to wear dark sunglasses that distort everything, and it is you who are forced every day to look at life through those contaminated lenses. You are looking through the lenses of your own contaminated love.

Real forgiveness means that you do not hold others responsible for your experiences. Because if you do not hold yourself accountable for what you experience, you will hold someone else accountable. And if you are not satisfied with what you experience, you will seek to change it by manipulating that person. Complaining, for example, is exactly that dynamic of wanting someone to be responsible for what you experience, and to fix things for you.

Complaining is a form of manipulation, but you are free to move beyond it to sharing at any time. The issue is the intention behind the communication. When complaining or blaming is used instead of sharing, that is what becomes negative. When you assume responsibility for what you experience and share it to increase your understanding of that responsibility, that is the same as forgiveness. When you hold someone else responsible for what you xperience, you lose power. And the perception that someone else is responsible for what you experience underlies the idea that forgiveness is something that one person does for another.

How can you forgive another person for your decision to step out of your own power?

When you really forgive you release critical judgment of yourself, as well as of others. You lighten up. You do not cling to negative experiences that resulted from decisions that you made while you were learning.

Clarity.

An authentically empowered human being is clear in his or her perceptions and thinking. Clarity is seeing with wisdom. It is being able to perceive and understand the illusion. It is being able to see beyond the activities of the personality to the force of the immortal soul.It is the ability to recognize nonphysical dynamics as they appear within the world of time and matter. It is being able to see the role of responsible choice and choosing accordingly in each moment.

Clarity brings forth true compassion. It allows the energy of the heart to flow, because wherever clarity looks, it sees the hand of God. Clarity allows you to experience your fellow humans with compassion instead of with judgment. It is the ability to see the soul in action in the physical world.

Clarity evaporates fear. It allows you to choose the vertical path and stay on it. It allows you to choose consciously. Clarity allows you to see the world of physical matter for what it really is: a learning environment that is created jointly by the intentions of all involved.

Loving.

An authentically empowered person lives in love. Love does more than bring peace where there is conflict. It brings a different way of being in the world. It brings harmony and an active interest in the well-being of others. It brings concern and care. It brings Light.

Love is not a passive state. It is an active force. It is the force of the soul. It washes away the concerns of the personality. There is nothing that cannot be healed by love. Love is the energy of the soul. Love is what heals the personality. In the Light of love, there is only love.